NCUA reports on impact of new 'small CU' definition

August 22, 2014

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (8/25/14)--The National Credit Union Administration's Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives (OSCUI) has released a report on its impact since January 2013, when the agency's definition of "small credit union" changed. The new definition classified a small credit union as those with assets of less than $50 million, up from the previous level of $10 million in assets.

According to OSCUI Director Bill Myers, this change meant that two-thirds of federally insured credit unions now qualified as a small credit union.

"Remarkably, we grew each one of our program areas to meet the increased demand without an increase to our budget or staff. Serving a broader audience of credit unions with our existing resources meant being realistic about which credit unions we should focus on," Myers said in the latest OSCUI report. "We learned to say 'yes' only to credit unions that were most likely to survive. We allotted time for follow up to ensure that credit unions adopted the measures we helped them develop."

During the first year of the new definition, OSCUI:

Invested more than 11,000 hours in credit union consultations, the highest number ever;

Assisted 21 organizer groups with new charter requests;

Offered three grant rounds in one year for the first time, which increased the number of first-time grantees by 51%;

Nearly doubled its consulting capacity by introducing two enrollment periods per year;

Trained more than 20,000 credit union officials and volunteers; and

Reached more than 15,000 viewers with videos, attracted nearly 9,000 participants to monthly webinars and fielded more than 1,000 inquiries through the new online search tool FAQ+. This was done through its Partnerships and Outreach Program.

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